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13 Fires Winnipeg: Conversation Series on Racial Inclusion

13 Fires Winnipeg is a group of concerned community members who want to address racism in our city. 13 Fires Winnipeg was formed after Our Summit: Local Racial Inclusion Summit, which took place on September 17, 2015. The major recommendation coming out of that event was to continue conversations on race and increase awareness and collaboration of the good work that is already happening. The event organizers decided to move forward with this recommendation, forming 13 Fires Winnipeg and committing ourselves to bringing community together each month in 2016.

AYO is proud be one of many supporters of 13 Fires including: Manitoba Moon Voices Inc. , Canadian Centre for Policy Alternatives MB,Food Not Bombs, Spence Neighbourhood Association. The organizers of 13 Fires Winnipeg have made a commitment to host one conversation series each month. If you would like to be part of the organizing team we are looking fro helpers in many different areas of expertise. Please email: 13fireswpg [at] gmail [dot] com

#13FiresWPG

Our Summit Final Report: Winnipeg's Local Inclusion Summit

In September 2015, city and citizen held concurrent summits on racism. Here is the final report from the citizen led, grassroots driven #OurSummitWPG

13 Fires 2015 Report

﻿Would you like to see what the 13 Fires organizers did with all of the feedback we got from the Local Inclusion Summit & December Launch event? Check out 13 Fires Winnipeg's 2015 report below.

Recent News

JUSTICE Fire burns in the Bullman

April 2016: JUSTICE (the 5th Fire)

On April 30th 3016 from 2-7pm 13 Fires Winnipeg hosted their fifth conversation series at the University of Winnipeg on racial inclusion this time focusing on JUSTICE. With Master of Ceremonies Ko'ona Cochrane and keynote speaker Lenard Monkman guiding our conversations we explored various conversation circles with our many partners including Big Brothers Big Sisters, IRCOM, Bear Clan and more. We had ice breaker activities featuring mixing with others from different neighbourhoods and also had an opportunity to decode some statistics around incarceration in Canada and Manitoba.

Some facts include:

Aboriginal people are 3 times as likely to be charged and sent to court after arrest than non-indigenous

72% of federal inmate population is Aboriginal. 4% of cdn pop in 2013 are Aboriginal.

70% of women in MB jails are First Nations

75% of youths in Winnipeg’s detention centres are First Nation

CHILDREN Fire at Marymound Funnest Fire Yet

March 2016: "A Lucky Puck event where some ball hockey players must use a paddle instead of a stick and one net is much larger than the other. An 18-year-old Dash to demonstrate the difficulties of aging out of foster care. A hoop game that represents the struggles families go through in their dealings with Child and Family Services. Those were a few of the conversation-starters in 13 Fires Winnipeg's latest in a monthly series of discussions about racial inclusion. Saturday's event, held in the gymnasium of youth social services organization Marymound on Scotia Street, dealt with the impact of racism on youth."

13 Fires HEALTH Exceeds Expectations

We had over 120 attendees to our third installment of the 13 Fires Racial Inclusion Conversation Series at the Chines Cultural Community Centre. Hearing from speakers about the importance of Northern Access to health care, as well as the experiences of newcomer and indigenous individuals in the health care system will yield a useful and multi faceted report targeting systems, doctors, citizens and others to help improve our health care service delivery and systems.

13 Fires POVERTY a Success!

Thank you to each and every helper who was part of creating Saturday. What a different place we would live in if we all saw each other as interconnected helpers and supporters -- as family. Whether you found us in the Metro, heard us on CBC, came with a friend, or were part of the many people helping to organize the event, you were an essential part of the day.Thank you to Elder Laverne Contois and Ko'ona Cochrane from Manitoba Moon Voices Inc. for sharing teachings and blessing the event. We are still learning how to create learning spaces that integrate Indigenous ways of knowing, and we are very thankful for our teachers. We recognize that Indigenous and non-Indigenous people must walk beside each other moving forward, because ultimately the struggles of Indigenous peoples are the struggles of everyone, whether that's protection for the land, fulfilling treaty promises, or caring for our children. For future Fires, we hope to work with elders to share knowledge and build relations in meaningful and respectful ways.One little boy shared that he had never heard a drumsong before and he was at least one human that day who made a connection to a new community, and tried to grapple with the idea of racism.

13 Fires: POVERTY (January 2015)

On Saturday January 23rd, 3:30-7:30 p.m. at Broadway Disciples United Church, you're invited to the second fire in the 13 Fires Conversation Series. This FREE event invites all community members, organizations, businesses, and government to attend! Childminding and a light dinner will be provided.

Thank You!

Diwa Marcelino and the Broadway Disciples United Church for providing community space.

Queer People of Colour Collective, Make Poverty History Manitoba, and Winnipeg Industrial Workers of the World for co-hosting, offering teachings, and providing music.

Food Not Bombs for reclaiming food that can't be sold from retailers and preparing delicious, free meals for the community!

3:30 Sign-in, artmaking, and hot chocolate stand (rentraiser)3:45 Welcoming activity and teachings5:15 Solutions-focused discussions6:50 Family portrait7:00 Family dinner by Food Not Bombs, with music from IWW

The First Fire (December 2015)

The first event in the 13 Fires Winnipeg Conversation series happened in December 2015 at the Circle of Life Thunderbird House and focussed on introducing the conversation series and deciding the 12 remaining topics. Our co-hosts were the City of Winnipeg's Citizen Equity Committee, Manitoba Moon Voices, Spence Neighbourhood Association & AYO!. Food was catered by Got Bannock? and we thank the CBC for covering the story.

Why the number 13?

In traditional Indigenous ceremonies, there's a very important role of helper, and the helpers are often fire-keepers. We see ourselves, the organizers of 13 Fires Winnipeg, as fire-keepers, and the citizens of Winnipeg themselves are the Fires. The number 13 refers to the 13 racism-impacted topics that community members brought forth at Our Summit in September, 2015 and the 13 Fires Winnipeg launch in December, 2015. This number is also spiritually significant for Indigenous communities on Turtle Island, referencing the 13 moons on the turtle’s back. ​